The Pitzer Post!
~*The Pitzer Post~
May 16-23, 2016
In this weekly post, you will find information about the academic content and special events happening in the upcoming week.
Literacy (Reading & Writing)
We have completed all 16 themes of our reading and writing curriculum! WHOO! I am so proud of all of our hard work this year. We have learned the following:
Vocabulary Words:
We learned 96 vocabulary words this year:
cabin, visit, memory, tradition, relatives, generation, rely, role, member, identity, sibling, symbol, fascinate, exploration, journal, measure, calendar, interval, daily, orbit, position, solar, ray, rotate, crossing, rural, build, purpose, social, urban, reside, route, state, journey, boundary, terrain, essential, wheel, machine, reduce, labor, effort, attract, magnet, object, operate, field, effect, result, vote, wait, government, duty, election, contribute, police, volunteer, participate, influence, emergency, nourished, farming, maintain, bounty, various, produce, freight, consume, distribute, available, taste, range, interest, earn, increase, value, browse, spend, market, business, prepare, provide, obtain, wages, droplet, puddle, cause, stage, transform, precipitation, fresh, careless, amount, critical, parched, and drought
Your child should be able to define each word and use it in a sentence correctly!
Phonics Patterns
We have learned 62 patterns this year:
digraphs (ph, th, ch, sh), short vowels, ake, ine, oke, ute, ail, ain, ay, eed, ea, eat, oat, ow, ue, ui, or, orn, art, ir, urn, air, eer, ear, ore, are, ire, oom, ew, au, aw, awn, alk, all, ood, ook, ank, ink, unk, ice, age, arge, oil, oy, ound, out, ow, contractions, kn, wr, dge, tch, adjectives with er and est, prefix un, suffixes (ful, less, er, ly), plurals ( s, es), plurals (y to an i and add es), y plus er & est, verbs (ending in ed), verbs (ending in ing), and compound words
Your child should be able to spell and read words correctly with the above patterns!
Genres
We learned 8 genres this year in writing:
personal narrative, expository (informational)/observation log, letter, biography, opinion/response to literature, story (realistic, fantasy, humorous, fable, mystery, fairy tale, and folktale), poetry and procedural text!
Your child should be able to explain what each type of genre is, provide examples of books and write text that would fall into to one of these genres!
We were also able to get to 40 minutes of guided reading stamina! WOW! Next week, we will review what we have learned in creative and neat ways!
Math
We wrapped up shapes and lines this week. Be sure to ask your child about creating shape monsters and our Geometry HyperDoc!
Wow we were able to complete 15 chapters in math this year! In those chapters we learned the following concepts: Place value to 1,000, addition with and without regrouping to 1,000, subtraction with and without regrouping to 1,000, bar models, multiplication, division, balanced equations, metric measurement, money, fractions, time, picture graphs, lines & surfaces, shapes & pattern.
The most important skills to take away from second grade are the first four concepts listed. Those are skills your child should have mastered or be very close to mastery. We also learned stamina. We sometimes have to try, erase, try, erase and try again. It is hard but when we apply what we have learned and use our critical thinking and problem solving skills, we can do wonderful things!
Next week will be spent reviewing our skills in fun and engaging ways!
Field Trip!
On Tuesday, May 17, 2016, all second graders will be traveling to the Linden Hills Dairy Farm in Peoria, IL. This field trip was one of the ones you paid for before winter break and we thought we send out some more information now that it is scheduled!
Our literacy series actually has given us a wealth of background knowledge on farm life. It is because of that, we thought what better way to bring that to life then by traveling to an actual working farm. The bus leaves at 8:30am and will return by lunch!
Since we are traveling to a farm, please have your child consider the weather that morning and wear something that they will be comfortable in. Please have your child wear tennis shoes or some sort of closed toed shoes as we will be walking a lot all over the farm. This will be so much fun and students will have a chance to see dairy cows up close and personal! If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact us.
Upcoming Events
Monday, May 16, 2016
- Lunch: Cheese Burger
- Box Tops Due
- DVMS Music Assembly 1:30pm
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
- Lunch: Chicken Nuggets
- Field Trip to Linden Hills Farm in AM (please wear closed toed shoes suited for lots of walking)
- Board of Education Meeting 7pm DHS
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
- Lunch: Grilled Turkey Burger
- BEACH DAY!
- Visitors can join us for our last reading camp beach front style! 9:30am-10:00
- Followed by the premiere of our end of the year movie
Thursday, May 19, 2016
- Lunch: Hot Dog
- 5th Grade Rocket Launch @ 9:30am on the baseball field!
- DGS Laps for Life (Packets are also Due)
Friday, May 20, 2016
- Lunch: Cheese Pizza
- 2nd-5th grade awards program @ 9am
- St. Jude Fundraiser 5pm-8pm
Monday, May 23, 2016
- Lunch: Sub Sandwich
- Last Day of School!
- Dismissal at 1pm
Celebrating Our Greatness!
- Wrapping up our reading, writing and math curriculum
- Realizing just how much we have learned this year
- Teaching 2Z how to use the Chromebooks, HyperDocs, Google Drawing, and Padlet
- Earning super improver stars!
- Creating our own compound word poster in Google Drawings
- Reflecting on our 1:1 experience
- Taking our last STAR reading test for the year
- Trying very hard to be a ROYAL even when no one is watching
Second Grade in Pictures!
#2Psuperimprovers #2Procks
